The present disclosure claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/728,005, filed on Nov. 19, 2012.
The present disclosure relates to aircrafts and, more specifically, to systems and methods to aid flight crews in avoiding obstacles while the aircraft is moving on the ground.
Aircraft are required to operate in two different environments, on the ground and in the air. While on the ground (e.g., while at an airport) aircraft need to be moved around to position them for takeoff as well as for other reasons such as maintenance, storage, passenger loading/unloading and the like. However, aircraft are designed, primarily, to optimize their flight, not their ground based operations. This can lead to cases on the ground, especially with wide body aircraft, where the aircraft crews have poor situational awareness of the aircraft and its dimensions due to limited visibility. Thus, the crew is limited in their ability to judge clearance of the aircraft with respect to obstacles on the ground, which may be numerous at unimproved airports in some countries.